An example of an article-extracting apparatus is European Patent Application Publication No. 0629078, published Dec. 14, 1994, which claims priority based upon Dutch application 9301004, filed Jun. 11, 1993, and which is related to copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/257,921, filed Jun. 10, 1994 because the copending U.S. application also claims priority based upon the Dutch application 9301004. This apparatus includes a scanner for scanning a document and generating digital image data corresponding to the image on the document, and a processing unit for analyzing image data in order to determine the document layout. During this analysis, the image is segmented into lay-out elements, referred to as objects, such as text blocks, photographs and graphic elements. The image is then displayed on a video display unit (VDU), whereupon an operator arbitrarily can select an object and move it to a receiving image separately from the rest of the image, by a cut and paste method, known from word processing.
One example of a composite document image is illustrated in FIG. 1, which is a newspaper page on which a number of objects of different type (only three types in this case for the sake of simplicity, i.e., title, text block and photograph) are displayed with their outline. The objects illustrated are associated with one another in groups: the articles. FIG. 1 shows an article by hatching.
When making up a newspaper page, the various objects are so placed with respect to one another and separated from one another by auxiliary elements, such as lines, that a reader can easily determine which objects belong to an article. The rules applied in making up the page often differ for each newspaper, although there appears to be a number of universal rules.
There is sometimes a need to gather articles relating to specific subjects from a set of documents, such as newspapers, and present them separately. This is frequently effected by cutting out the relevant articles and sticking them together on separate sheets of paper. The result might be termed newspaper cuttings. Making up newspaper cuttings is a time-consuming activity and it is often a tedious task to adapt the clippings, which still have the form in which they were printed in the source document, i.e., the document from which the article has been cut, to the shape of the receiving sheet, the page bearing the newspaper cuttings.
With the known apparatus it is possible to separate an article from the rest of the document and output it separately, e.g., to a printer. In the case of an article made up of a large number of objects, however, this is also a time-consuming activity, because each object must be separately selected (by the operator) and output. There is therefore a need for apparatus which enables an operator to select and output an article in one operation.